Léopold GOTTLIEB (Drohobycz 1879 - Paris 1934)

Portrait of the painter's wife, Aurelia Polturak Made in 1912 Oil on canvas 111 x 89 cm Signed lower right "Leopold Gottlieb Localized and dated upper left "Lwow 1912 Exhibition: Wystawa Sztuki Wspόłczesnej [Contemporary Art Exhibition], Society of Friends of Fine Arts, Lwow (Lviv) 1913 Bibliography: Wystawa Sztuki Wspόłczesnej [Exhibition of Contemporary Art], Society of Friends of Fine Arts, Lwow (Lviv) 1913, reproduced in black and white Artur Tanikowski, Wizerunki człowieczeństwa, rytuały codzienności. Leopold Gottlieb i jego dzieło, Kraków, Universitas 2011, reproduced p. 34 Born in Drohobycz in 1879 (now Ukraine) to a Polish Jewish family, Leopold Gottlieb, a painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, was the younger brother of the famous painter Maurycy. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in the years 1896-1902 under the direction of Jacek Malczewski and Teodor Axentowicz, among others. He already made portraits in pastel and watercolor on commission. In 1903, he continued his studies in Munich with Anton Ažbé. In 1904, he travels to Paris. On his return to Krakow, he frequented the circle of young Jewish artists and intellectuals formed around the painter Samuel Hirszenberg, Leon's older brother (portrayed by Gottlieb in Paris, cf. lot no. 30). In 1905, Gottlieb initiated the formation of the Group of Five. From Krakow, he went to Lwow (Lviv) and Vienna, where he was a member of the Hagenbund. In 1906 he traveled to Jerusalem where he held the chair of painting at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts. In 1908, he was again in Paris, where he rubbed shoulders with Polish artists and intellectuals, including Mela Muter, Moses Kisling, Simon Mondzain, Elie Nadelman and Adolf Basler. During the First World War, he joined Pilsudski's Polish legions. He left Poland again in the early 1920s, living first in Germany and then, from 1926, in Paris. In 1929, he became a member of the artistic group Rytm [Rhythm]. In France, he regularly exhibited his work in Parisian salons, notably the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Indépendants, the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the Tuileries, as well as in galleries in the capital. He participated in exhibitions of Polish art, notably in Barcelona, Vienna and Paris. Author of symbolic, biblical and genre scenes, he is especially appreciated as a portraitist. His portraits of men, painted with large flat tints of sustained colors, sometimes dark, are synthetic and powerful. The female models are represented in light and pleasant colors. In 1912 in Lwow (Lviv), he painted the portrait of his wife, born Aurelia Polturak. It represents the graceful silhouette of a young woman with a benevolent smile. The range of soft pastel colors plays on the complementarity of different shades of blue and yellow, supported by a large patch of colored white of the model's dress. The only dark spot in the painting is the young woman's hair, which draws the viewer's gaze to her head and thus symbolically underlines her intelligence. Indeed, born in 1892 in Lwow (Lviv), Aurelia Gottlieb was known as an art and literary critic. Among other things, she wrote a scholarly analysis of the art of Marc Chagall (1931), from a Zionist point of view. Her contemporaries emphasized her kindness, but also her willingness to act and the need to express her opinions in favor of the Zionist idea, to which she was strongly devoted. Her husband, on whom she would have had a great influence, also on the artistic level, had a deep respect for her. After the death of Leopold Gottlieb, she devoted herself to social work. During the Occupation, she took refuge in Lyon and became the secretary of Marc Jarblum, leader of the Zionist Organization of France and the Federation of Jewish Societies of France. Despite the risks, she continued to work underground to help Jewish families and was arrested by the Gestapo during the 1943 roundup in rue Sainte-Catherine in Lyon. She died in Auschwitz. Dr. Ewa Bobrowska - CEBM SAS (Cabinet d'expertises Bobrowska-Mielniczuk)